[Civsoc-mw] Wash Post article on shutting down the internet.

[cammack at mweb.co.za]

Why are so many African leaders shutting off the Internet in 2019?


Protesters gather near a burning tire during a demonstration over the hike
in fuel prices in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Jan. 15. (AP) 

By Chipo Dendere 

January 30  2019 at 7:00 AM  Wash Post

Last week, Zimbabwe's High Court ordered Internet operators to restore
service to people in the country after access had been shut down for a week.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's officials, aiming to prevent protesters from
coordinating their actions and sharing information, ordered the shutdown
after
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/21/zimbabwe-high-court-orders-go
vernment-to-restore-full-internet> mass protests against fuel price hikes -
from less than $3 per gallon to almost $12 a gallon - rocked Zimbabwe for
weeks. Protesters argued that the shutdown's goal was to prevent the world
from hearing about the violent government crackdown that left at least 12
dead and more than 600 imprisoned.

Zimbabwe was not the first - and surely won't be the last - country in which
an African government shut down the Internet to suppress political dissent,
as I've found in my ongoing research project tracking such shutdowns. During
2016 and 2017, the continent saw at least 119 total shutdowns, 43 social
media blackouts and 237 days of delayed Internet. The shutdowns ranged from
a few hours in Zimbabwe in 2016 to 40 weeks in Cameroon, from June 2017 to
January 2018.

Governments tend to shut down the Internet after intense demonstrations that
challenged the government's hold on power. In
<https://www.readingeagle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20190120/AP/3012098
27> 2019 alone, people in at least five countries - Chad, Congo, Zimbabwe,
Sudan and Gabon - had their Internet switched off by the government.

Shutting down the Internet has broad ripple effects

Human rights advocates have been arguing that when governments disrupt the
Internet, they are
<https://www.amnestyusa.org/is-internet-access-a-human-right/> grossly
violating individual rights to freedom of expression and access to
information. Access to social media allows people to share information about
human rights abuses at home and abroad; popular activists tend to have
hundreds of thousands of social media followers all over the world. Kenyan
activist  <https://twitter.com/bonifacemwangi> Boniface Mwangi has more than
1 million followers. A single post by
<https://twitter.com/bonifacemwangi/status/1089107328480264194> Mwangi,
<https://twitter.com/PastorEvanLive/status/1084529009776562178> Evan
Mawarire or  <https://twitter.com/cypher007> Cheikh Fall can travel far and
fast, especially once it circulates on Facebook's encrypted text-messaging
service, WhatsApp.

But disrupting Internet access also profoundly affects a country's economy.
In places like Zimbabwe, where most citizens and governments depend heavily
on mobile banking and cash transfers, national economies
<https://allafrica.com/stories/201901210529.html?utm_campaign=allafrica%3Ain
ternal&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=promote%3Aaans%3Aaba
fbt> lose millions in revenue during Internet blackouts. Blackouts also
<https://www.readingeagle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20190120/AP/3012098
27> slow or stop remittances from flowing into low-income countries. Banks,
hospitals and schools find it harder to function without the Internet. When
the Zimbabwean government
<http://zimtechreview.co.zw/index-id-News-story-2071.html> briefly suspended
its Internet ban, people
<https://twitter.com/tsidical/status/1085594573869592576> speculated that
this was done to allow civil servants' salaries to be processed.

The Internet's democratic and economic effects are intertwined

Since 2000, many African countries have made
<https://government.cornell.edu/news/new-book-examines-democracy-africa>
remarkable progress toward democracy. And that progress, in turn, has helped
enable expansions of radio, television and the Internet, with far-reaching
effects. My analysis of
<http://afrobarometer.org/online-data-analysis/analyse-online> Afrobarometer
surveys reveals that the number of Africans across the continent reporting
that they receive news from the Internet or social media rose from 2.6
percent in 2008 to 17.6 percent in 2018. In 2018, nearly 50 percent of
African respondents reported that they have access to mobile phones, which
they use daily. This not only improves communication but also accelerates
<http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/896971468194972881/310436360_2016
0263021502/additional/102725-PUB-Replacement-PUBLIC.pdf> economic growth by
lowering the cost of banking and facilitating commerce.

Since the
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/25/egypt-5-years-on-was-it-ever-
a-social-media-revolution> 2011 Arab Spring,
<https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2017/02/8-hashtags-that-shook-africa/>
protests have spread across the continent using Internet and
<https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2017/02/8-hashtags-that-shook-africa/> hashtag
campaigns, including #feesmustfall in South Africa, #bringbackourgirls in
Nigeria, and a push to oust Senegal's longtime leader. Zimbabwe's
<https://www.dw.com/en/thisflag-facebook-video-starts-wave-of-dissent-in-zim
babwe/a-19281998> #thisflag campaign helped push
<https://www.ft.com/content/de0ae300-ce94-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6> out
longtime dictator Robert Mugabe. Pastor Evan Mawarire, leader of #thisflag,
is one of the
<https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/16/africa/zimbabwe-crackdown-protests/index.htm
l> activists arrested last week in Zimbabwe for using social media to call
for  <https://twitter.com/PastorEvanLive/status/1084529009776562178>
peaceful protests against the government's proposed price hikes.

Authoritarian governments have developed ways to fight back against Internet
freedoms

Meanwhile, academics and researchers who predicted that the
<https://www.npr.org/books/titles/137980667/the-revolution-will-not-be-telev
ised-democracy-the-internet-and-the-overthrow-of> Internet could challenge
authoritarianism clearly underestimated how easily the Internet could be
manipulated to bolster authoritarian survival.

In response, authoritarian regimes are developing sophisticated tools to
censor online engagement. Those include co-option whereby they infiltrate
the campaigns or pay off leaders, hiking the cost of the Internet, and
complete shutdowns.

These aren't new tactics; governments have long muzzled dissenting opinions
by  <https://www.jstor.org/stable/24357087?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>
shutting down the news media. In most African countries, the government runs
the major media outlets, making it infinitely easier for the state to
monitor news - and, at times, fabricate it. The same governments also tend
to have a monopoly over Internet and mobile telecommunications providers.
Strive Masiyiwa, billionaire and founder of the regional telecommunications
giant Econet, reported that in both Zimbabwe and Congo, the
<https://www.techzim.co.zw/2019/01/my-companies-in-zimbabwe-drc-and-sudan-we
re-complying-with-the-law-when-they-blocked-the-internet-but-i-am-praying-an
d-fasting-for-you-says-strive-masiyiwa/> governments directed his companies
to shut down the Internet, warning that if they that failed to do so, the
firm's management teams would be arrested and thrown into prison.

Turning off the Internet, for authoritarian governments, is much like
turning off the cameras and turning out the lights, giving cover for gross
atrocities. During the most recent blackout, the Zimbabwean government
<https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-01-20-blocked-internet-in-zimb
abwe-hides-government-crimes-against-humanity/> allegedly unleashed soldiers
in poor neighborhoods to beat up suspected protesters. Soldiers were also
instructed to take people's phones, preventing them from recording events to
be shared later and making it hard to reach loved ones and confirm their
safety.

In Congo, the government forced providers to
<https://netblocks.org/reports/evidence-of-internet-shutdowns-in-drc-amid-el
ection-unrest-PW80YLAK> shut down the Internet before
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/01/drc-electoral-fears-rise-as-i
nternet-shutdown-continues> recent elections and for three weeks after they
took place, making it harder to protest or challenge irregular election
results.
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-election/congo-cuts-internet-for-s
econd-day-to-avert-chaos-before-poll-results-idUSKCN1OV1GL> Officials
defended this to Reuters by saying Internet and SMS services were cut to
preserve public order after "fictitious results" began circulating on social
media.

When economic slowdowns come alongside those shutdowns, governments have
blamed the loss of income on protesters.

While  <https://twitter.com/SABCNewsOnline/status/1086169578382733312> human
rights activists and
<https://twitter.com/KateHoeyMP/status/1085230141255512065> Western
governments routinely
<https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2017-06-01/why-internet-access-huma
n-right> criticize Internet shutdowns, most governments face few or no
consequences for doing so. As long as they reap rewards from shutdowns by
ending anti-government protests or muzzling opposition, they will continue
to use these silencing tactics.

 <http://www.drdendere.com> Chipo Dendere is a postdoctoral fellow at
Amherst College. Follow her on Twitter at  <https://twitter.com/drDendere>
@drDendere. 

 

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